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Dial2Do lets you do common tasks by just calling a number and speaking. Use it to send EMAIL or TEXT messages, record REMINDERS to help you remember things, post updates to your TWITTER or JAIKU stream and LISTEN to your favourite internet content. It's easy and handsfree.

Prompts main image The best prompts are the ones that spark a personal connection between the writer and their ideas. Provided here are some generic writing prompts to get you started, but you will also find some tips on how to write your own prompts. These self-written prompts will offer better starting blocks for your students than the generic prompts because they spring from the immediacy of their lives. Another source for writing prompts is Blowing Away the State Writing Assessment by Jane Bell Keister. Narrative 1. It is 20 years from now. Your name has just been called and you are about to receive an award. Tell the story of how you came to be so successful and win this award. (Gr. 6-12) 2. Rewrite a fairy tale from a different point of view. For instance, * The Three Pigs as the wolf would tell it * Hansel & Gretel as the witch would tell it OR, use any example you like. (Gr. 5-8) 3. Write a story based on one of the following: * Where is it? * Breaking loose * If I had my way ... * Suddenly, in the headlights ... * That noise! * Don't even remind me * The biggest nuisance * Annoying! * At last! (Gr. 5-12) 4. Think of your best or worst day in school. Tell the story of what happened. (Gr. 4 & up) 5. Write a story based on ONE of the following * Little brothers (or sisters) * Older sisters (or brothers) * A narrow escape * My first memory * I'd like to go back * You won't believe it, but ... (Gr. 4 & up) 6. Think of a friend you have, in or out of school. Tell one story that comes to mind when you think of this friend. (All grades) 7. Think of an event you will want to remember when you are old. Tell about what happened in a way that's so clear that if you read this story again when you are eighty, every detail will come flooding back as if it happened y

Prompts main image The best prompts are the ones that spark a personal connection between the writer and their ideas. Provided here are some generic writing prompts to get you started, but you will also find some tips on how to write your own prompts. These self-written prompts will offer better starting blocks for your students than the generic prompts because they spring from the immediacy of their lives. Another source for writing prompts is Blowing Away the State Writing Assessment by Jane Bell Keister. Narrative 1. It is 20 years from now. Your name has just been called and you are about to receive an award. Tell the story of how you came to be so successful and win this award. (Gr. 6-12) 2. Rewrite a fairy tale from a different point of view. For instance, * The Three Pigs as the wolf would tell it * Hansel & Gretel as the witch would tell it OR, use any example you like. (Gr. 5-8) 3. Write a story based on one of the following: * Where is it? * Breaking loose * If I had my way ... * Suddenly, in the headlights ... * That noise! * Don't even remind me * The biggest nuisance * Annoying! * At last! (Gr. 5-12) 4. Think of your best or worst day in school. Tell the story of what happened. (Gr. 4 & up) 5. Write a story based on ONE of the following * Little brothers (or sisters) * Older sisters (or brothers) * A narrow escape * My first memory * I'd like to go back * You won't believe it, but ... (Gr. 4 & up) 6. Think of a friend you have, in or out of school. Tell one story that comes to mind when you think of this friend. (All grades) 7. Think of an event you will want to remember when you are old. Tell about what happened in a way that's so clear that if you read this story again when you are eighty, every detail will come flooding back as if it happened y

Learning environments of the future are in incubation. And therein lies the challenge: Learning environments that don't exist can't be analyzed. Moving into the unknown requires a pioneering spirit. Helen Keller reminds us that is the truth of not only our age, but of all ages: "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."

A post from Alma Harris, Yong Zhao and Michelle Jones on the importance of developing contextual solutions. A reminder why things like IOI Process and the Modern Learning Canvas are so important as they offer a method for developing unique solutions.

And it serves as a reminder to be less reverent about those long-held assumptions.

Your del.icio.us bookmarks visualized. A bit of fun

Load thumbnails of your delicious bookmarks. Crank the size up and this is a great reminder of sites that you have saved.

* Manage tasks from anywhere * Get email, SMS or IM reminders * Share your tasks * Access from your phone * Manage tasks offline * Use with Google Calendar * Add tasks from iGoogle * a free version

Excellent productivity tool that operates with iGoogle seamlessly.

Now that you are well established on Twitter and following more friends than ever you might like to know those who are not adding to your knowledge or update stream. Twitoria is just the place to check up on how many friends you are really following? By entering your username on the main page, Twitoria finds your friends that haven't tweeted in a long time so you can give them a gentle reminder, (or as Twittoria suggests, the boot!).

The content and technology are continually changing. This article reminds us that learners are also changing. For the past decade, faculty who won awards for teaching expressed concern that they could no longer hold the attention of their students. John Seely Brown, Chief Scientist at Xerox and director of its Palo Alto Research Center, hired 15 year olds to design future work environments and learning environments. He observed that the students did not conform to the traditional image of learners as permissive sponges. It requires us to rethink and redesign education for the Digital Age.

Better we make the wise decision than the expedient one. Read the older educators... Read Ted Sizer and Deborah Meier and Herb Kohl... and feel the wisdom in their words. They write without hubris, but instead with an acknowledgment of their own flawed humanity. They write with an understand that they cannot be all things to all children, but with the knowledge that they must come as close as they can. I am far from religious, but I am reminded a lot these days of the serenity prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

GumNotes lets you annotate websites, documents and emails. Set timed reminders and share notes with colleagues and friends. View and edit your notes on your IPhone, PC, Android or Internet.

The recent holiday break has reminded me of a number of things - how organised I am at work and with all things digital, yet my working space at home,

This highly amusing look at the world of Web 2.0 as viewed through the INTERNET-AGE WRITING SYLLABUS AND COURSE OVERVIEW is a salutary reminder to those of us who have latently become besotted by the wonders of social networking that "All that Twitters is not told". As Mr McSweeney suggests the course is the perfect antidote to those who are worried what to do; "As print takes its place alongside smoke signals, cuneiform, and hollering ......." I 4 1 wll B signing up 4 I cn hz writng skls

Maureen Tumenas is assembling an ever expanding collection of movies of er class and others working especially with science. These are great examples of how video can be used on a number of levels. The videos are a great reminder for the students in Maureen's class, they enable parents to be involved in what is happening in the classroom, they can be used as a stimulus for other students and teachers can review them as a means of professional learning.

Useful list to remind us all of different/alternative tasks that can be used to assess learning

The Future of Education is a topic often discussed, and at the recent gathering of educators in Florence, it was the title and theme for the conference. Now in its ninth year, The Future of Education is an international conference that attracts educators from around the world and across all domains touched by education. The conference is an inspiring two days of discussion and sharing, with the city of Florence, the centre of the Renaissance, providing a constant reminder of what might be possible when creativity and critical thinking combine. Here are my key takeaways from this event.